Romney 2010 Flashback on Obamacare: Repeal the Bad, Keep the Good

RUSH: Mitt Romney, April of 2010, he's been asked to compare Romneycare to Obamacare.

ROMNEY: There are some similarities and there are some differences. I like some of the similarities, I dislike most of the differences between my plan and their plan. The similarities are that we have an incentive for people to become insured, and the incentive works, we have 98% of our citizens in Massachusetts that are insured. So that's working. Another similarity is you can't be denied coverage, insurance coverage if you have a preexisting condition or if you change jobs you don't need to worry about losing your insurance. So our insurance is entirely portable. Those are perhaps the most important or well known similarities. The differences, one is, our plan was a state plan. I believe in federalism. I believe the Tenth Amendment gives to the states the right to create their own health insurance programs rather than have the federal government intrude on the rights of states. That's number one. So some similarities, some differences, and I hope we're ultimately able to eliminate some of the differences, repeal the bad and keep the good.

RUSH: Now, this is from 2010. Did you catch something important here? See, Romney is twisting himself into a pretzel in the campaign because he's saying, (paraphrasing) "Obamacare, gotta go, it's horrible, and the first thing I'm gonna do is repeal it." And they said, "What's bad about it, because it looks just like yours?" "There's all kinds of differences, I don't need to get into 'em now but there's all kinds." And we've had Romney's people that put together his health plan say it's identical to Obamacare. In fact, Romneycare was the model for Obamacare; Romney's own people are saying so. So, as part of the Republican Party contest, people have been trying to point out, wait a minute, Romney has not been really forthcoming about this.

So this bite has been discovered, and Snerdley caught it. The similarities in Obamacare and Romneycare, he named two that he likes, and one of them is the mandate. He says here the similarities are that we have an incentive for people to become insured. That's the mandate, and the incentive works. Ninety-eight percent of our citizens in Massachusetts are insured. So when he's asked about that today, for example, what does he say? Well, let's go back to September. He's in Orlando. This is Fox News Channel. It's a debate. Chris Wallace, "Governor Romney, the other day Governor Perry called Romneycare socialized medicine. He said it's failed in western Europe and in Massachusetts, and he warns that Republicans should not nominate, in his words, Obama-lite. How do you respond to Governor Perry?"

ROMNEY: Obamacare intends to put someone between you and your physician. It must be repealed, and if I'm president of the United States on my first day in office, I will issue an executive order which directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to provide a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states. That law is bad, it's unconstitutional, it shall not stand.

RUSH: Okay. So the reason people keep bringing this up is that you can go back to just last year, and you can hear Romney totally supportive of the mandate. Which is what the entire question of constitutionality on this bill is all about. That's what's going to be decided in the Supreme Court. Here's Romney supporting it. But when he's asked about it, "I'm gonna get rid of Obamacare, it's horrible," but in 2000, "Oh, there's some things I like about it." It just goes to the flip-flop nature, or the flip-flop charge, if you will. Now, I must also point out that it's a lib site that keeps bringing this stuff up, Talking Points Memo. At Talking Points Memo the guy that actually digs this stuff up, I'm having a mental block on his name, Talking Points Memo is run by a guy Joshua Micah Marshall, big lib.

There's a guy that they're crediting for digging this stuff up that they say is a Republican opposition research guy. He's 23-years-old and I can't for the life of me remember his name now, but while this so-called Republican opposition research guy is digging this stuff up by watching C-SPAN, that's what he's doing, he's just looking at all these C-SPAN archives finding this stuff. It gets posted at Talking Points Memo, which is a leftist blog, it's the website of the Center for American Progress, which is John Podesta. I mean it is out there.

Andrew Kaczynski is the guy's name, Andrew Kaczynski, 23 years old, is the guy that they credit as a Republican opposition research guy who's finding all this Romney stuff. This is just one Romney bite at this site. Now, ask yourself, this isn't Newt Gingrich doing this. This isn't Michele Bachmann doing this. This is essentially Obama doing this. I mean The Center for American Progress Talking Points Memo, they are invested in Obama winning reelection. They are the ones finding this stuff, they are the ones. This is why I've always said, you know, the establishment thinks I'm full of it, conventional wisdom people think I do not know what I'm talking about, that I'm so inexperienced in real politics and I'm just such a novice that when I say I think the White House really wants Romney as the nominee, they say, "You don't know what you're talking about, you're stupid, Romney is the only guy that can beat 'em, they're scared to death of Romney. What they really want is Newt," the latest non-Romney. But I think Occupy Wall Street and I think this, I think they're gearing up for Romney. They have been from the get-go.